Johann sword

Johann Schwert , also: Hans Schwert ( September 17, 1907 in Nuremberg - May 21, 2013 ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism .

life and work

Schwert was born out of wedlock and grew up in poor conditions with grandparents and aunt in Pfaffendorf, Franconia. There he met his future wife Amalie. He finished elementary school, but the family lacked the financial means to send him to secondary school. Therefore, at the age of 14, he began an apprenticeship as a bricklayer in the neighboring village and immediately became involved in the only local union, a Christian union federation. After completing his apprenticeship, he moved to Frankfurt am Main in 1927 , quickly found work building the Ernst-May-Siedlung and joined the construction union of the General German Trade Union Federation ( ADGB ). Two years later he married Amalie.

The consequences of the economic crisis made it difficult for the couple to survive, and the desire to have children had to be postponed. Johann Schwert joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and attended a Marxist workers' school . When the Nazis seized the trade union houses in early May 1933, the work of the KPD changed. She founded new trade union groups and was only able to organize herself in secret meetings. In August 1936, Schwert was arrested, interrogated by the Gestapo and tortured. Yet he did not reveal any name, connection or relevant information. In Kassel he was tried and sentenced to ten years in prison for preparing for high treason . An odyssey followed through a total of 14 prisons and camps, including five years in solitary confinement. In 1945 he was liberated by the US armed forces in Ulm .

He returned to Frankfurt and initially worked at the institute for recording war damage . After the birth of his daughter Doris, he worked in the housing department and from 1952 in the social security office, where he stayed until his retirement in 1972. In 1968 he joined the newly constituted German Communist Party (DKP). He became chairman of the staff council of the insurance office , fought against the radical decree and became a member of the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime - Association of Antifascists (VVN-BdA) in Hesse. His daughter, who, as a DKP member, was not allowed to work as a teacher at state schools, was also affected by the professional ban as a result of the radical decree.

In the 1980s he worked on the senior citizens' committee of the Public Services, Transport and Traffic Union (ÖTV), was a district board member of the VVN-BdA and became a member of its Hessian state board. From 1987 he appeared regularly as a contemporary witness. In 2007 he was a speaker at the rally against the NPD march in Frankfurt. On his 105th birthday in 2012, City Councilor Lilli Pölt brought the congratulations from the Federal President, the Hessian Prime Minister and the City of Frankfurt.

Award

• Johanna Kirchner Medal

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Klapperfeld.de: contemporary witness Hans Schwert , accessed on December 13, 2015
2. ↑ TV wish list: The Gestapo The German Police in Weltanschauung , accessed on December 13, 2015
3. ^ Frankfurt live: Congratulations on the 105th birthday A political life , September 17, 2012

Web links

• Johann Schwert in the Internet Movie Database (English)